


These Stories

by tekhnicolor



Series: The Ficlet Universe [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-03-07
Packaged: 2018-03-16 17:18:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3496466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tekhnicolor/pseuds/tekhnicolor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because once upon a time a boy met a girl who loved him better than he had ever loved himself. It was page one of the longest book in the universe, which neither of them has ever read but which is full of impossible things like forevers; and in which each chapter is more beautiful than the last.</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Stories

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write something for the "about" page of my tumblr (I clearly have nothing interesting to say bout myself) so ta-da! Nothing much, just drabble.

Reader,

There’s this blue box, you see, that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. And because of that, no matter how many people walk through its doors, it will always be a little empty. It’s old and new at the same time, and it’s the very last of its kind. It’s powered by a star that is always dying but never dead. It’s a bit of a scatterbrain, a bit mercurial, a bit unstable, and it doesn’t always take you where you want to go, but it always takes you where you need to go. It’s a little damaged, but still good. And if you listen carefully, you can hear the hum of a song that’s a little bit like magic and oh, I almost forgot, it can travel anywhere in all of time and space. And it’s so very blue.

There’s this man too, who lives in the box. There’s something frightening about him, something ancient and guarded that you can see in his eyes, and he’s haunted by the shadow of a hero gone wrong. He’s broken and dangerous, but he’s kind. Even when it breaks his heart. Hearts, actually. He’s got two of them. Which makes sense because he’s different. His family is the biggest in the universe and his courage the strongest, but he’s lonely and fragile and he knows that the darkness will never entirely leave him, that the stars will not always be bright enough to find him. He runs a lot, and running so fast makes it so hard to hold onto things. But he does anyway. He’s brilliant and impossible and the strangest man you will ever meet. And he’s beautiful.

And there’s this girl. Because when the stars aren’t bright enough, he needs something else. There’s this girl with yellow hair and brown eyes and just one small heart. But it’s bigger on the inside, and she loves him in a way that makes him feel worthy. A way that makes him want to fight, and to hope, and to live. She cares for things relentlessly, even when they don’t deserve it. Understands the universe even at its most complicated. She does not come from an age-old planet and she has not lived a thousand lives, but there is a quiet, uncanny strength that resides in her bones even when she’s most afraid. She makes the world better, and she makes him better. And there is no one in the universe quite like her.

❧

One day the man and the girl will make their last trip. The box will appear on a lonely planet somewhere, and, hidden away in a quiet corner, it will fall into disrepair. Vines will creep up its walls and grow over its little windows, its wood will chip and its paint peel and curl back, and for a very long time it will be left alone, untouched and forgotten, until it becomes just another lost thing. A legend. A story. A fairy tale told by a mother to her son about a man and a girl and a box who were always there just when you needed them.

The hum will go quiet, and the song will end.

But the story never ends.

Because sometimes—in the middle of the maelstrom of stars and while everybody is too busy to notice the little things—once in a very long while, in quiet, unnoticed places, tucked away in secret corners of the universe that no one pays much attention to, _lost things come back._

❧

And someday, someone will find it. A little boy, whose mother made sure to stuff his arms into the sleeves of a brown coat before letting him play outside in the rain, with freckles and untamed hair sticking to his forehead and the biggest, brownest eyes. There will be a glitter of gold in the mud and he’ll bend down to inspect it, and, in one of the footprints left behind by his red trainers, will be a key. He won’t know what it’s for, only that it shines like a tiny star in the palm of his hand. But there will be a faint humming, calling to him from behind a broken gate and down a long-deserted path, and with insatiable curiosity he will follow it. The blue will be older, but still just as blue. He’ll have to stand on his tip-toes to reach the lock. The key will fit just as it always has and the door will swing open. Inwards.

An orange light. A soft hum. Old things come back.

His brown eyes will widen, fill with wonder.

And in the bowels of a blue box that is bigger on the inside, a new adventure will begin.

_(Somewhere else, the man and the girl will say goodbye. But they’ll be alright. Because once upon a time a boy met a girl who loved him better than he had ever loved himself. It was page one of the longest book in the universe, which neither of them has ever read but which is full of impossible things like forevers; and in which each chapter is more beautiful than the last._

_**These stories are theirs.** )_

xxx


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